Striper and Bass Fishing: Hard Baits

[Poseidon]

Hey folks,
I was wondering what kind of hard bait should i pick up for striper or bass fishing. I know the fish feed on shad, but there are so many different shad looking hard baits that I'm lost on picking one up. I'm new to all this, so any help and or advice would be amazing.
Thank You!

[DarkShadow]

Hey folks,
I was wondering what kind of hard bait should i pick up for striper or bass fishing. I know the fish feed on shad, but there are so many different shad looking hard baits that I'm lost on picking one up. I'm new to all this, so any help and or advice would be amazing.
Thank You!

Depends what your budget it, what part of the water column you wanna be targeting, and whether you fish from shore or off a boat.

If I was stuck on a stranded island (with stripers on it), and I had one hard bait to use, it'd probably be a small lipless in a threadfin pattern.

[Poseidon]

Price doesn't really matter. I have one rattle trap and just lost a swim bait that looked like a trout to the rocks I bought from Gallions -_-. I got no love on the trout swim bait. I really don't know how stripers work and when to fish which water column lol
I will definitely pick one of those lip less crank-baits up!

[DarkShadow]

I really don't know how stripers work and when to fish which water column lol

And I think you answered your own question with this.

You need to do research on what your quarry is and how they behave in order to find out what to throw at them. This entails knowing what they're doing during each season of the year, and what forage they are focusing on. Once that happens, you can make some pretty educated guesses on what hard baits will work and at what time.

[Poseidon]

True I need to dedicate more time at the lake and try different lures out to see what works and what doesn't. I'm excited to learn and figure out the patterns! I only caught 5 stripers on the lugworm last week, and nothing on the lure. I want to turn that around

[sweetfish]

Get some of these for striper fishing.

White Fluke with 1/4 oz. Scroungerhead.

http://static.squarespace.com/static/509d7c06e4b081ffff71ad54/t/51bb6ad1e4b078f42cc78823/1371237074161/39Scrounger.jpg

[DEVOREFLYER]

Throwing big swim baits is not for the impatient, many many hundreds of casts for the big one is the price you must pay. 47307

[twin22s]

Maybe this will help

my top 5 hard baits for striper in no particular order:

White rattle trap(can be fished at any depth)

Zera spook (for when they are busting)

trout pattern Sebile magic swimmer (for the bigger ones)

Rapala X-rap suspending in white(clown or blue for low vis) (fished like a jerkbait when the bite is tough)

Rapala Shad rap in any shad pattern (Great in the fall around ledges/drop-offs)

[twin22s]

All that being said my go to stiper lure is a paddle tail swimming superfluke jr. in pearl. I catch more striper on soft plastic and spoons than anything.

[P.A.W.]

As you can see there are almost as many effective lures as there are fishermen. When stripers are in the mood to eat you have to just give them something fishy looking. I was convinced the key to my success was my $18 Lucky Craft lures..... until I lost all of them and tied on some cheapo Rapalas and a no-name topwater. Caught fish on all of them. So study the patterns first. Not just the target fish (stripers) but what is the bait doing? So my list
Lightish colored pointers and jerkbaits 90 - 110 mm
Gunfish topwater
Flukes
U-rig

[DEVOREFLYER]

^ Pat nails it. No surprise here, lots of time on the water always wins......lots and lots of time...

[Poseidon]

I'll definitely pick up some flukes, I used it before and jogged it and had no luck.

Yah I'm really patient when it comes to fishing haha that's why I want to get into throwing swimbaits.

[Poseidon]

What kind of spoons would you suggest?

[JAG107]

I tell you what, those scrounger flukes get me 95% of my stripeys. For hard baits though, I've had some success with lucky crafts and X raps. Some baits seem to work better at certain lakes than others. Flukes nevver produced for me at DVL, but at the Wood they're my go-to. I whacked a 10 lb wiper at Irvine a few years ago on a LC48 while trout trolling...that bait is less than 2", and looked like a tic tac in that pigs mouth. It really all depends on what they're eating, you can throw all the big baits you want, maybe they're keyed in on fry. Sometimes the big ones work the best.

[Poseidon]

I tell you what, those scrounger flukes get me 95% of my stripeys. For hard baits though, I've had some success with lucky crafts and X raps. Some baits seem to work better at certain lakes than others. Flukes nevver produced for me at DVL, but at the Wood they're my go-to. I whacked a 10 lb wiper at Irvine a few years ago on a LC48 while trout trolling...that bait is less than 2", and looked like a tic tac in that pigs mouth. It really all depends on what they're eating, you can throw all the big baits you want, maybe they're keyed in on fry. Sometimes the big ones work the best.

Thank! Ive never had any luck with flukes